The author said: I will update twice today, since I have a lot of manuscripts saved!
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The two men stopped at the same time and looked in the direction where the voice came from. They saw that the person who spoke was a short man with a strong physique, a full beard, and skin tanned by the sun. He was wearing the clothes of a Bohai envoy.
The gatekeeper saw that it was an envoy from Bohai and thought that he was disturbed by the quarrel in front of the gate and wanted to come to question him. He quickly explained: "I don't know where a scoundrel came from. He wants to enter the Four Barbarians Hall to cause trouble. I will drive him away for you!"
Qiu Yizhi recognized that the Bohai envoy was none other than Yelu, Princess Yiran's right-hand man. So he stood up calmly, dusted himself off, and looked at Yelu with a smile.
Yelu had just come out of the house after hearing Qiu Yizhi's call, so he naturally recognized his identity. He nodded to him as a greeting, and then said to the soldier guarding the gate: "This young man is a friend of mine. Can I invite him to the Siyi Pavilion to talk for a while?"
The soldier looked embarrassed and said, "So you know him, sir. I am really sorry. But he is a citizen of the Central Plains. It is against the rules to enter the Four Barbarians Hall without permission. If the higher-ups investigate, I will not be able to explain myself."
Ye Lu smiled and took out a bean-sized ingot of gold from his sleeve and handed it to the soldier: "You see, there is no other person around here except the three of us. I invited this brother in just to have a few words. It's nothing serious. I hope you will be flexible." After saying that, he personally bent down to pick up the packages scattered on the ground for Qiu Yizi.
The soldier received the reward and had nothing to say. He closed his eyes and let Qiu Yizi enter the Siyi Hall.
After entering the hall, Yelu immediately changed his tone to a respectful one and greeted him, "It's been a month since we last met. I see that Your Highness Yi has become more resourceful. Congratulations!"
Qiu Yizhi had been pretending to be a kid since he left Guangyang. Today, he finally heard someone call him "Your Highness Yi". He felt very relieved and said, "Brother Yelu looks much stronger. I think his martial arts have improved. I'm afraid my subordinate Zhao Chengxiao is no match for you now. But I recently recognized a brother who is one of the best masters in the world. I'm not afraid that Brother Yelu will be unhappy. I'm afraid that if we fight alone, you won't even be able to get close to him!"
Yelu was a famous wrestling expert on the grassland. After being provoked by Qiu Yizi, he became competitive and said, "Your Highness Yi will definitely not deceive me. But I am not a coward. If I have the chance to meet your brother in the future, I will definitely learn a few tricks from him."
"Then Brother Ye Lu has to practice first!" After saying that, the two looked at each other and laughed.
Qiu Yizhi had been feeling depressed for a few days, and finally laughed heartily in the Siyi Pavilion, finally clearing away the depression in his chest. He asked Yelu again: "How is Princess Yiran these days?"
"Humph! You guys have been chatting for so long, and now you remember me?"
Qiu Yizhi was surprised and delighted to hear this familiar voice, and hurriedly looked for the owner of the voice. As expected, a foreign woman walked out of the house. She was tall and healthy, with unique deep blue eyes, naturally curly brown long hair, and an unconcealable heroic spirit between her eyebrows - it was Princess Yiran of Bohai State.
When Qiu Yizi saw this, she was even more overjoyed. She rushed forward a few steps, stretched out her arms, and hugged Princess Yiran in her arms.
This was a common etiquette on the grasslands, and Qiu Yizhi and Yiran grew up together, so there was no taboo. However, at this moment, the two of them were already in love. Qiu Yizhi could feel Yiran's towering breasts through two layers of thin clothes. Her heartbeat accelerated immediately, and she quickly pushed her away, forcing a smile and asked, "Why did you follow me?"
Yi Ran's face flushed as she said angrily, "Since you left Guangyang and entered this world of pleasure, there has been no news from you. You didn't even have time to write a letter. I have to take this opportunity to pay tribute and come and see what kind of promiscuous things there are in the Central Plains that even the eyes of His Highness, the adopted son of the King of Youyan, are fascinated by them."
Qiu Yizhi thought that although she had gone through countless risks when she left Guangyang to come to the capital to do business, it was also an eye-opener. It was not wrong to say that she had plunged into the world of pleasure. However, she must not let Yiran know that she was entangled with Wen Lingjiao, the saint of the Tianzun Sect, otherwise it would cause another big storm.
Thinking of this, Qiu Yizi pretended to laugh at himself and said, "What are you talking about? My foster father sent me here to do something, how could he let me travel around? Look, I'm like a street rat now. I don't even have a place to live in this huge capital city."
Yi Ran saw Qiu Yi carrying a bundle in one hand, with dirty and wrinkled clothes, looking in a state of embarrassment. She felt a little distressed, but she was unforgiving: "Look at how sloppy you are, sitting on the ground, maybe others will think you are a beggar. I see you are pitiful and give me a few copper coins. You can even save the travel expenses that the prince gave you!"
Seeing that she had no suspicion, Qiu Yizi pretended to be humble and said, "My lord, your teaching is right. I have learned your lesson. I hope you will give me a room so that I can take a bath and change clothes, so as not to pollute your eyes."
Yiran was so amused that she put her hands on her hips and laughed for a while. After a lot of effort, she stopped laughing and said, "What's the big deal? Didn't you just say that you had no place to stay? There are only envoys from our Bohai Kingdom living in the Four Barbarians Hall. There are many empty houses. Why don't you stay there?"
Qiu Yizhi thought that this place was indeed a secret and safe place to stay, but he said, "You don't know this. The Siyi Hall is a place specially used to entertain foreign envoys. How can I, a Han subject, live here in an inappropriate way?"
"What's so difficult about this? Just pretend to be the interpreter of the delegation." Yiran replied.
Qiu Yizhi scratched his head and said, "It's easy for you to say that. The interpreters all have official documents. What if I can't produce them when they check? What's more, I don't understand the language of Bohai at all, so how can I get away with it?"
Yi Ran laughed again and said, "Why did you become stupid after entering the capital? When has the Ministry of Rites ever seriously checked the document of interpretation? Even if they did, they could say that the document was issued by the Youyan Palace and was lost on the road. Then the Ministry of Rites would naturally go to fight with the palace. The latter one is even simpler. Yelu and I both understand Chinese. When the time comes, you can just talk nonsense about Yitong and we will pretend to understand it. Isn't that enough?"
When Qiu Yi heard this, she realized it was indeed a good plan, and she immediately complimented him, "You are truly worthy of being Princess Yiran of Bohai. I admire you so much for coming up with such a perfect plan."
Yiran felt relieved after hearing what Qiu Yizhi said, so she said, "Don't use Qiu Yizhi's name anymore. I heard that you said 'I don't understand anything', so from now on you should be called 'Quan Budong'." Yiran laughed to herself halfway through her speech, "Quan Budong sounds like a Goryeo name, so you can just say that you are a Goryeo refugee who took refuge in Bohai State, and then let the Ministry of Rites fight with Goryeo State."
The two chatted for a while, and seeing that it was past noon, they were a little hungry, so they asked the servants to prepare lunch, and they had a feast. They also asked Yelu to negotiate with the small leader of the Siyi Pavilion to get an empty room, and asked someone to prepare hot water, so that Qiu Yizhi could take a bath and change clothes.
Qiu Yizi had been running around for several days and was filled with fatigue. Soaking in the warm bathtub, all the muscles and bones in the body suddenly relaxed and a wave of sleepiness came over him.
Just as I was half asleep and half awake, Yiran pushed open the door and shouted, "Do you think you are a grown-up girl? You have been taking a bath for half a day and you still don't want to come out. Hurry up and pack up and accompany me to visit Luoyang City."
Qiu Yizhi's slightly brewing sleepiness was dispelled by her shouting. He knew he couldn't persuade this foreign princess, so he asked her to leave for a while, then he immediately got out of the bath, changed his clothes, put some gold and silver beside him, and pushed the door open.
But Yi Ran also changed into a bright red silk skirt, a purple gauze shirt on her upper body, and a bun on her head fixed with a golden hairpin - just like a Han woman's attire. However, Yi Ran's appearance was very different from that of a Han Chinese, and she was not similar to ordinary Hu people. Wearing this Han clothing, she looked quite different. Qiu Yizhi had never seen her dressed like this before, and she stood there in a daze, a little stunned.
Seeing him like this, Yi Ran scolded him, "Why are you still standing there? It's getting dark, what's the fun of waiting until curfew?"
Qiu Yizi came back to her senses after she called him, and said with a smile: "The night view of Luoyang is really beautiful. By the way, I am grateful to the princess for taking care of me in Guangyang City on weekdays. However, I have made a fortune recently, so I will bear the expenses of traveling to Luoyang."
So the two of them chatted and laughed, then left the Siyi Pavilion and looked for a busy neighborhood to start sightseeing.
In the eyes of the foreign barbarians, Guangyang City is already an extremely prosperous and magnificent city, and Luoyang City, as the capital of the Han Empire, is far more prosperous and magnificent than Guangyang. A few days ago, the great eunuch Wang Zhonghai died. Although the Persuasion Bureau has not been disbanded, it has restrained itself a lot. Without this layer of shackles and imprisonment, the people of the capital finally vented their long-suppressed emotions, making the capital more bustling and noisy than before!
Yiran walked all the way in Luoyang City, and felt that everything along the way was interesting and interesting, and everything was unique and novel. He pointed and asked Qiu Yizhi to buy this and that. Qiu Yizhi was glad that she had prepared before going out and brought enough gold and silver, but she couldn't carry a third basket, so she had to buy two big baskets on the street. After walking a few steps, the baskets were filled with clay sculptures, sugar figures, shadow puppets, rouge and powder, handkerchiefs, folding fans and other objects.
Yi Ran was attracted by the cultural scene of Luoyang, and also attracted many people in Luoyang. Although she was dressed as a Han woman, her exotic face was still very eye-catching. Even though the people of Luoyang were well-informed, they rarely saw such a beautiful woman, and they followed her and pointed and whispered.
Ever since Yiran left Bohai and came to Central Plains a few years ago, there has not been a day when she was not pointed at and talked about by strangers and idlers. Today, there were just more people pointing and talking about her, but she did not take it to heart at all. Instead, she became more vain and even more excited to encourage Qiu Yizi to take her around to play and sightsee.
Qiu Yizi has always known the temper of this foreign princess, and knows that if this matter goes against her wishes, she will immediately turn against you, so she has no choice but to follow her wishes and keep moving forward.
Qiu Yizi didn't know whether she was leading Yiran or following Yiran. As they turned a corner and walked into an alley, her nostrils were suddenly filled with a familiar strong fragrance. When she looked up, she was startled and cried out secretly, "Not good!" (To be continued)